Ramadan Summary

1. Ramadan Summary

2. Summary • Summary of this year • Room reservations • Catering (cost, reviews and catering) • Milk and dates • Tarawih + other religious programming • Summary for survey • Recommendations for next year

3. Catering • Target cost per iftar dinner was $600.00 for 80 people • Includes drinks, etc • Target was $6.00-$7.00 per person for food • Got bids from five caterers • Boston Kabab House: $8.00 per person (Turkish restaurant). They also don’t cater on weekends • Sepal: $5.75 per person. Does not cater on Sat. Sunday is reluctant as well • Bytes: $6.50 per person • Bon Apetite (Baker): $6.80 per person. • J&P Food Hut: $7.00 per person + $25 delivery

4. Catering • Did not go with Boston Kabab House • Additional Food from other groups + families • Ms. NasimJahan (i.e. NasimMami in Bengali) (Nasim.Jahan@bsci.com) • Iranian students arranged for dinner

5. Catering contacts • Bon Apetit (Baker): Marietta Lamarre-Buck mlbuck@mit.edu • Sepal: WalidMasoud. Just go to his restaurant • Bytes Café: Mohamed Barry: Cell is 857-991-4818 and phone is 617-621-3513 • JMP Food Hut: (617) 787-9700. Say you are from MIT MSA. They know us.

6. Other recommendations • Guru the Caterer. His email is guruthecaterer@gmail.com. He can make Halal food on demand and his charges are $7/person. Food is said to be good but you need to specify Halal food. • Sabra Grill. Never been there but Deeni and Khaled say it’s good. Should contact them about this

7. General catering suggestions • Aim for $6-$7 • Always make sure that they will deliver. Specify delivery location and time • Always specify payment timing. Explain that fundraising is ongoing and that money is short • Bytes café is very good about this • JMP and Sepal is not

8. Catering: Bon Apetit (Baker) • Contemporary post ethnic cuisine • Payment is done by MIT internal transfer. Just give them account number • Pros • Professional • Not too expensive • Don’t need to worry about coordinating delivery • Cons • Some folks complain about food • Baker is not the best venue since it tends to fragment the group. Not at all conducive for spiritual reminders and announcements. • Things to look out for • Baker is not open in the summer so check to see when they open

9. Catering: JMP • Indian cuisine • Catered from them for 4 nights • They do weekends and weekdays • Very generous w/ food • Typical menu was Chicken Biryani, vegetable curry and white rice for vegetarians • Cost was $7/person + $25 for delivery • NOTE: Deeni ordered white rice, chicken curry and veg. dish for $6/person • Overall experience • Pros • Good food and generous • Professional • Cons • They want payment on the spot. Need to create check before hand • Sometimes, they wanted to deliver food too early. Always negotiate delivery time before hand

10. Catering: Bytes • Senegalese restaurant at University Park ( • Mohamed Barry: or visit his reastaurant • Typical menu • Rice • Chicken curry or chicken stew • Salad • Cost + Payment schedule • $6.50 per person • All payment due after Ramadan. He got the checks ~2 weeks after Ramadan and he was very nice about it • Recommendations • Go to his restaurant and eat there several times before ordering. His food is good (he has a really good dish on Tuesdays) and it is a good way to build a relationship

11. Catering: Bytes • He only cooks on weekdays • Overall Summary • Pro • Reasonable price • Very pleasant brother to deal with • Good quantity of food • Very generous in terms of payment schedule • Cons • His food got mixed reviews. Some nights it was really good. Other nights, some people complained

12. Catering: Sepal • Owner: WalidMasoud • Palestinian restaurant on 2nd floor of Lobdell • Contact info: walid@mit.edu, Go to his restaurant • Menu • Rice • Chicken dish (one day it was Maghlouba, which is a chicken and rice dish) • Salad • Vegetable curry sometimes (okra dish or green bean dish) • Payment schedule • Prefers to be paid soon after meal. Will hound you for payment so avoid giving cell phone number out. • Payment through internal requisition. Takes up to 5 days to process so you need to get a quotation from him and submit a check request

13. Catering: Sepal • Overall summary • Pro • Good price and Good food • Cons • Quantity on the small side • Particular about payments. Will hound you until he gets paid. • Recommendations: If Obaidah or another Palestinian student can negotiate, that would be better.

14. Musallah Setup • Bought 12 boxes of premium Medjool dates from Al-Hoda Market before Ramadan • Each box cost $40.00 • Faisal Kashif drove O.S. over to Al-Hoda and back to Musallah • The dates did not spoil over the month so it’s OK to buy in advance and store them • We bought 12 disposable table sheets • MostafaYoussef really took the lead for setting up on Brother’s side • When he was away and sick, we really missed him

15. Recommendations for next year • Organizational improvements • Have Ramadan planning meeting in May or June • Open it to members of public • Solicit feedback and volunteers • Empower willing volunteers ( ask them to contact caterers, etc) • Send out survey several months before Ramadan • Solicit caterer recommendations + offers to cook

16. Rec for next year (cont) • Other ideas • Cook out in Sidney Pacific Multipurpose room once or have a

17. Recommendations for next year (cont) • Food • Ensure better vegetarian options. Aim should be to have a veggie starch dish (e.g. rice) and a vegetarian entrée @ every iftar for next year • Fresh fruit + veggies would work as well • Contact local families (especially student/alum)

18. Last thoughts • People (especially during Ramadan or for Ramadan) are always willing to help out. Don’t feel shy about asking them • Remember to enjoy this experience!